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ChristopherJam
Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 1409 |
How did you get started?
I noticed a lot of reminiscing on PAL's "I want to code" thread, which was interesting to read, but pretty off topic so I'm starting a new topic over here :)
I, too, got my c64 coding off the ground with a copy of the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference guide (pdfs of which can now be found at http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_programmers_reference/c64-p.. ). Initially I was assembling by hand, and entering the code as BASIC DATA statements - I don't miss those days at all.
I switched to FASSEM as soon as I got hold of a copy (in 1986 IIRC), and did a lot of debugging of my own code and examining of others' using my brother's Final Cartridge, before eventually graduating to an Action Replay (don't ask me to remember which versions!) I particularly remember spending hours poring over a disassembly of Walker's music routine as extracted from Armalyte, and printed out on sheets of green and white paper.
My fastload coding bible was and still is Immers & Neufeld's "Inside Commodore DOS" - one of the few paper books I still refer to.
How did you guys get going?
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Fungus
Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 686 |
in Basic I started on the apple IIc in like 1980 or something...
assembly I started in I think 1990, but didn't poke around on it much as I was playing in bands and getting laid at the time... but in 92 or 93 I got a lot more interested in it. I decided I wanted to make cool raster bars and intros and maybe some demos, so I started looking for books on it. I got Jim Butterfield's book and taught myself assembly in 6 months, first I used the Warp Speed monitor, then I bought an Action Replay and used it instead. Once I started talking to other people coding on boards, I ran into Roy Batty and Moloch, and they turned me on to Turbo Assembler and I started coding for real. Man those were the times, it was so fun and everything was new. I started with figuring out how to time raster bars and whatnot, then I figured out scrollers and how to make a logo swinger after I painted one in Centauri Logo Edit. That logo sucked balls and I deleted it thank god... shortly after I made my first (terrible) demo. Batty thought I was pretty good and we got to talking and we ended up forming MLM along with Waveform (RIP)...
After that I got on irc and started to talking to people there. I had great conversations with Deadbeat, Graham, Crossbow and Oswald. It just went on from there... contrary to popular beliefs I coded first, and cracked later ;) I actually started cracking because I wanted games to work on NTSC better than the fixes I had, or old games which didn't work at all... I got told it was lame to fix someone elses work, so I started figuring out how crack, I talked to JJ The Breaker and he helped me alot, also the guys from TSD. My mentors for real were Deadbeat and Sorex, and taught me that quality is better than speed ;)
anyways, enough ranting... |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094 |
I will never forget that Fungus taught me on IRC how to do FPP ;)
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Fungus
Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 686 |
and Oswald taught me how to do Plasma =] |
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Flavioweb
Registered: Nov 2011
Posts: 463 |
When i was ten, my parents gave me a Philips Videopak+ VG7400 with -Microsoft BASIC Home Computer Module (G7420)-.
Here i started to learn coding basis, reading users manual and typing examples...
Live in a small country town don't help at all to find infos or books on how to code, not even find softwares are so simple.
Meanwhile my parents realized my passion for coding, registered me to a course in "code for businness" where was taught to me how to code some gestional applications using basic on a Laser500 computer.
Arrays, sorting (bubble sort, quick sort...), data manipulations... thing where i -graduated- with good grades.
In that period, many friends are become the owner of at least one Commodore computer, and i was struck about quantity of software and books availables for those machines.
I worked during the holidays so i can buy a C128 with C1541
and among classmates and friends i owned a lot of sotwares and infos...
Here is about 1988/89 when i'm in touch with people like Mamasoft of ICS that gave me some sources and tools (tass, char editor, a -sid player- coded by Marco used for ripped tunes... and much more than i can remember...) when i'm officially started to code in assembly.
The rest is history. |
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Skate
Registered: Jul 2003
Posts: 494 |
I've started with an Atari 800XL with a combination of Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference. :) First a few basic examples worked (plain print/goto stuff etc). But when pokes and other stuff involved Atari refused to run those basic programmes. That's where i started "thinking"... |
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TheRyk
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2246 |
Guess I was simply too young, didn't know the right ppl, read the one mags (mostly those focused on games) and had terrible IT teachers in the mid/late eighties. I 99% consumed and produced nothing really worth mentioning, unless sb gives a damn about BASIC at home (Atari800XL in the mid80s, C64 V2.0 later) and Comal/Pascal in school. Though my father was a professional coder, he didn't bother teaching us kids assembler, cause my mother was (rightly) of the opinion my bro and me spent far too much time indoors with the computer (gaming) anyway.
The rest is well-known (PC era --> roughly 15 years hardly any thought about 8bit apart from nostalgic talks with friends and booze --> ePay bargain --> hobby --> "collection" because friends gave me their ancient hardware/disks/whatsoever --> obsession? --> Codebase, Groepaz and other German forum users started teaching me what my father didn't back then...) :)
@Skate: In terms of gaming, Atari made you an outsider/weirdo at that time, C64 was the latest shit. But Atari Basic was really much better than C64 V2.0. You could do sooo many things so easily with intelligent commands instead of POKE/PEEK/SYS combos. |
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spider-j
Registered: Oct 2004
Posts: 498 |
Quoting TheRykGroepaz and other German forum users started teaching me what my father didn't back then...) :)
Yeah, maybe this is a good hint for beginners: learn german first and come to Forum64 :-) I think without guys like Groepaz, Peiselulli, Enthusi, Crossbow, Graham, etc... (sorry, can't list you all) who are so nice to spent their precious time patiently answering questions there to us 'newbies', we wouldn't even be able to do effects that - how Groepaz would say - were already old in 1985 :-) |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386 |
ugly sprites in sideborder never get old though :o) |
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Flimsoft
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2013
Posts: 2 |
I have just began reading on assembly language. I am reading the Commodore Reference Guide to begin with. It seems a challenge but BASIC did when I was learning that, suddenly things click into place.
I think once I understand what different memory locations do I might be onto a winner! Many things to grasp in the world of assembly.
I just ordered a beginners book by Shiva which I also have for BASIC programming. So hopefully in a couple of years time I might just be releasing my own demos :) |
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Adam
Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 323 |
first got started? well, it all started in 1987 (when i was 7yo) when my school teacher introduced us to BASIC programming. the man was light years ahead of other teachers and the education department. he knew computers were the future and educating his students to know how to use them was high on his list of teaching priorities. I didn't bother to learn assembler for the c64 until many years later. during my time on the amiga i did try and learn 680x0 but never got too far. music, girls and partying was more important then ;D
Here's what I used to try and learn machine language for the C64:
1. C= programmers reference guide
2. Commodore 64 Exposed by Bruce Bayley, published by Melbourne House (ISBN: 0-86161-133-0) (c)'83 beam software
3. How to program your Commodore 64 by Sam D. Robers, Ing.W. Hofacker (ISBN: 3-88963-184-3) (c)'84 Ing.W.Hofacker (germany)
4. Machine Code Graphics and Sound by Mark England and David Lawrence (ISBN: 0-946408-28-9) (c)'84
..and a few other books ;) |
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